Oceans Course, the last course before I began my internship,
was my most favorite course of my entire stay at ISDSI. Beaches, coral reefs,
and Muslim villages! But for real, I made some strides in my personal
development that I just didn’t see coming. It was a game of expectations that
were completely filled in some ways and in other ways my view of the world was
turned on its head.
The beaches were so beautiful! Because of some weird Thai
connections that ISDSI has, we were able to camp anywhere in the national park.
This was not the typical US national park with funnily costumed rangers, giant
grizzly bears, and subarus filled with picture snapping national geographic
wannabes. This were wide expanses of white sand beaches, reefs teeming with
exotic fish, and all inside an exotic archipelago with no one in sight except
for our two local guides and the eleven of us whose goal was to “learn” about
the reefs. We were in the Adang Archipelago, which rival the beauty of the
Hawaiian Islands, and we had the island to ourselves. It’s really unfair to
everyone else that received four credits for this course.
Our first academic activity was to explore the reefs and
write down five things we saw. I know other beginning assignments are usually
pretty easy but this one takes the cake. Other academic activities following
this event were pretty much like “go on vacation”, have a good time, enjoy the
water! Also, camping on the beach is great except for all the sand and all the
water. It rained a few times while we were on the islands so most of our things
were perpetually wet for a good week. Many people emerged from this trip with
weird rashes and staff infections. Luckily, I remained untouched by the watery
ailments but came away with an unfortunate entanglement with glass (to be
explained later). The islands portion went pretty much as expected. We all
pretended to “engage” in our studies but in reality it came so naturally
because we loved to study what we were studying. I saw so many interesting
fish, reptiles, monkeys, coral (soft, branching, etc.) and I just was so happy
to be there. We ended our stay in the archipelago by staying at a resort. I got
a thatched bungalow all to myself!
The next part of this course was to stay with a host family
in a traditional Muslim fishing village. Now, ISDSI had warned us that we must
be very conservative and respectful of the culture and the religion. This
preview only compounded by expectation of a strict religious setting where I
would feel stifled and uncomfortable. But this was not the case… at all. First
off, I was frequently harassed to join the village’s all-gay volleyball team.
They had a big tournament coming up and I possessed… the height, the look, the
something? I dunno, but they wanted me. I declined but I went to some of their
finals at the village school and, dang, they knew how play some v-ball. They
leapt, spiked, and bumped with ferocity that I had rarely seen, and all with
such grace too, especially when juxtaposed with their straight counterparts. It
was really interesting to observe this thriving gay community in the midst of
an Islamic village because probably even more harshly than Christianity, it is
intensely taboo and looked-down upon. But, the community was often seen
laughing and cavorting with this community, in fact, there was only one
community and the lady boys seemed to have a place. Obviously, members of the
community probably disagreed with their lifestyle choices, but it didn’t matter
so much that they were not accepted. Also, they lady boys were pretty
respectful of the community. Some refrained from homosexual acts because they
did not want to upset their neighbors or family. And… I could write a whole
blog post about this subject.
Anyways… I got really close with my host mom and host dad.
They were only about a decade older than me so we were more friends anyways. My
dad was a fisherman and my mom was a shopkeeper. I helped run the shop when I
had time. My dad had been a Muslim his whole life but he told me Islam meant
freedom to me. When I tried to tell him that I thought it meant submission, he
just shouted freedom and thumped his chest three times. He also wasn’t very
strict in the fact that he sneaked beers and didn’t follow the ceremonies to
the letter. Other fun facts about him: I watched him hold down a goat as it was
slaughtered, he took me for motorcycle rides on the beach, and he was of a
certain size that I could put him in my pocket and carry him around. Also, it
was with him that sliced my big toe up. We were moving driftwood away from the
tide line on the beach so he could pick it up later and I stumbled and got
glass caught between my toe and my sandal. He raced me back to the village on
his motorcycle after having used his own shirt to stop the torrent of blood
exiting my body and spilling onto the sand. It was graphic, I was scared, and I
was okay. I went to the hospital and after they gave me a shot DIRECTLY into my
wound, I received eight stitches in my big toe. Dang, a big toe injury really
sets one back. I had to use crutches for bit there. But eventually I left the
village and when I was at the airport my host mom put on the waterworks that
also misted me up too. I will always miss Mot and Pot.
Anyways, I really will miss my time during oceans and am so
happy that it was the course to punctuate my semester abroad.
My blog is still not over. I still live in Thailand. Up
next: My trip to Cambodia, My climb to the highest point in Thailand, and my
Internship.
